This is the blog of a Norwegian (Marianne, aka 'M') who moved to Australia in 2007 to be with Roger (aka R) and feels lucky to have escaped a comparatively communistic country with ridiculous weather!

What's with the world never getting sick of cop shows? Most of the shows on during prime time are cop shows, and most new shows being put on are also cop shows. They don't even have any interesting twists, they are all just murder case after murder case after murder case. How could you not get sick of that?

I used to watch cop shows, but after a couple of years I thought 'meh it's all just the same stuff over and over' and I currently do not watch any cop shows, because they are not interesting anymore.

And the ones that are remotely interesting because of a twist that makes them different from the main stream cop shows, such as 'Life on Mars', they get taken off the air because people don't like them!

I would like to know how you could watch weekly cop shows for years and years and not realise that nothing new will happen.

There are rumours of a new test which is about to become available in Australia (has been available in Usa since 2006) which claims to reveal the gender of a fetus at only 8 weeks old.

Some people now fear that this will lead to a rise in abortion rates, which for some reason is worrying. Gender selection is illegal in Australia btw, and when undergoing IVF, you are not allowed to test the gender of the embryo.

I see a couple of things wrong with this. First of all, people are already allowed to choose whether or not their baby gets to live based on other criteria, such as Down's syndrome or deformities. Sometimes the deformities are minor, such as a missing arm/hand/leg.

So if people already get to decide the fate of their baby, based on minor, trivial details, why is gender selection seen as such a big deal? In a modern country like Australia, very few people would have an abortion based on the gender, this would be a much bigger issue in countries where people only want sons/daughters.

The second thing wrong with it is that people are 'worried that abortion rates will go up'. Why? They have given women the choice of whether or not to have babies, and claim to support this choice, based on the fact that embryos are 'not really human, just a lump of cells'.

So if there's nothing wrong with having an abortion, why are they worried the abortion rates will go up? If there's nothing wrong with it, the rate shouldn't matter.

But for some reason, everyone's always saying how we should try to keep the abortion rate at a minimum, and using abortion as an emergency 'contraceptive' is highly frowned upon. So why is that, when there's nothing wrong with it?

Why are forum moderators so prone to powertrips and vindictiveness? It would seem you are more likely to encounter these traits in a moderator than in the general population.

I have mentioned my conflicts with the Cat-world moderators and Fishforum moderators before (the comments are worth a read, the moderators found my blog entry and left some... interesting.. comments). This time the conflict was with the Aquatic Community forum.

Someone made a stupid post about how stupid it was for an English couple to go all the way to Usa to adopt a cat, because it was 'just a dumb cat' and 'nothing special about it at all', and they could have adopted one in England. I will admit that that adopting an English cat would have saved a lot of money, but I still think it's great that this couple decided to go all the way to Usa and go through all the effort of importing a cat to England, it shows that they really care and they think the cat is worth it, and at least we know the cat will have a good home.

So I had a go at her for saying it's just a dumb cat. I didn't make any personal attacks, I simply pointed out the stupidity of her comment, and said ' if they'd gone over there to adopt a kid, would you have a go at them for not adopting an English kid, because it's just a dumb kid?' and also pointed out that it cost me $4k to import my cats to Australia, but that doesn't mean I should have had them euthanised and get new kittens when I moved here, just because it was cheaper.

The forum has a feature where you can give people rep points when you think they give good advice or make a good post. I've only used it a couple of times when someone has bashed Usa, and I when I used it I noticed you can also use it take away rep points from someone when you disagree with them.

I thought the post about cats was so insulting to cats and cat lovers, that I decided to use this feature to remove some of her rep points.

This morning I had private message waiting from one of the moderators, where he said 'you are never allowed to use negative rep', and he also provided a link to the rules where it says 'you are not allowed to use negative rep'. No conditions, no examples of when you can use it, just that you cannot use it at all, ever.

The obvious question came to my mind: Why have a feature available for everyone to use, if you're never ever allowed to use it? So I asked the moderator that, and he said something about how you can't take rep points off someone, it's not nice or something to that effect, and also that I'm lucky that it's not allowed, because apparently scores of members have begged him to be allowed to give me negative rep.

So I told him I don't care if people take rep off me, it's none of my business what people think of me. And if I did care about rep points, allowing negative rep might have made me change my ways, if people hate me as much as he claimed.

I can't remember exactly what he said after that, he basically went on a stupid powertrip which was quite pathetic.

I made a post in the 'thoughts and suggestions' forum where I asked why there is a feature we're not allowed to use. If we're not allowed to use it it should be removed, and if it's not removed we should be allowed to use it.

The moderator deleted that post. I then pm'ed him and had a go at him for deleting a perfectly legitimate post, then posted it again. He then told me the 'reposting is in violation of the rules, your time here is getting short'. So not only is he now deleting my legitimate post, but he's also threatening to ban me even tho I did nothing wrong.

I then wrote a pm to the administrator, to complain about the behaviour of this stupid moderator. The administrator agreed with me that having a feature that you're not allowed to use seems a bit silly, and he would look into removing it. But he also said he supported that I got a warning for using the negative rep. (He's Swedish, so he has a lot more sense than the Usatian moderators do, I quite like his way of dealing with conflicts.)

In the meantime, the moderator had replied to my post about negative rep, and brought up the incident about the cat with the other forum member, and asked 'did this really warrant negative rep?'. My topic was not meant to discuss my disagreement with the other member, only whether or not there should be a feature that we can't use, and the thread was then closed because it was considered 'inflammatory'. Well it wouldn't have been inflammatory if the moderator hadn't been so childish.

The moderator then pm'ed me again and said my post wasn't legitimate because my question had already been answered. I asked 'where?' and he said 'read my first pm again'. But in his first pm he never explained why the feature is available, he only said you are never allowed to use it, so I pointed this out to him, and he then replied with 'if you don't know why it's there then I gave you too much credit, no one else has ever had a problem with it', to which I replied 'if you've never wondered why the forum has a forbidden feature then you don't deserve any credit, as you are obviously not the sharpest knife'.

Another incident in the same forum comes to mind. It was a few months ago, I can't remember what the original topic was, but someone from Usa made a nasty comment about Canada, and one of the Canadians didn't like that, so they made a comment about how Usatians are so arrogant. Because of his comment about Usa, the thread was closed and the member who made the comment was given a warning. I pm'ed the Usatian moderator responsible and asked why the topic was closed and the member given a warning, yet nothing was done about the Usatian person who bashed Canada, nor was the thread closed for it.

I can't remember his exact reply, but it was some sort of defence of Usa, how they are not arrogant and people have no right to call them arrogant etc. Not answering my question in other words, and another example of a high and mighty moderator on a powertrip.

I don't know what it is, but this seems to be extremely common in all English speaking forums, while in European forums, the moderators are usually very professional, they allow arguments and when giving someone a warning (which it would take a lot to do) they always keep it very professional and follow the rules to a tittle. They would never allow themselves to act in a vindictive, irrational way.

I so prefer European forums these days. The people are usually so knowledgable and they ask so many intelligent questions, unlike in the English speaking forums where people rarely try to acquire any advanced knowledge, meaning the same questions are asked over and over, and there are rarely any interesting discussions for people who are not beginners.

Harassed and Assaulted After Defining Himself as African-American.

Born and raised in Mozambique and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, Serodio, 45, has filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey medical school, claiming he was harassed and ultimately suspended for identifying himself during a class cultural exercise as a "white African-American."

Are Usatians really so stupid that they don't know you don't have to be black to be African? Do they even know there is a continent called 'Africa'?

Today R and I went to the Betta showroom here in Brisbane to pick up some bettas I had imported from Thailand. Thailand is where all the good breeders are, as the fish originated there and have been selectively bred for hundreds of years. No one knows more about breeding bettas than Thai people.

This is the male I bought (click for bigger versions):

   

The colour in the first photo is the most accurate.

And this is the female (the last photo shows the correct colour):

   

I've never thought of them as anything but gorgeous (in the two weeks I've known of their existence), so I found it funny when R had one look at the male and exclaimed 'he's so incredibly ugly!'. I spose can see how he could look ugly to the untrained eye, and I spose I can agree that in some ways he is ugly, but to me he's so ugly that he's perfect:)

Hopefully these will produce some nice looking babies:)

I walked into my office today to find my smaragdinas spawning. I've had them since Feb and have been trying to get them to breed since then, but they have refused. What finally triggered it was a combo of increase in temp, more plants to hide in and a sudden change in weather.

After they had finished and I was bored of spying on them, I decided to check on my new siamese fighter pair. They were showing signs of being ready to breed last night, after only 2-3 days in my care (which is not because of me of course, but the great condition the Thai breeder kept them in) so today I put them together to see what would happen. Within 5 minutes of being put together they were spawning.

Smaragdinas (Betta smaragdina) and siamese fighters (Betta splendens) are closely related, so they spawn quite similarly, and it's fascinating to watch.

The male builds a bubblenest in a suitable spot. When an eligible female enters his territory he will swim over to her and try to look as impressive as possible, and then try to lure her back to the nest. This usually requires a few tries before she's willing to follow. Once she's at the nest with the male, she will inspect the nest and if it's to her liking she will nudge the male's side, he will flip her over on her back, wrap his body around hers and squeeze. She then releases the eggs and he fertilises them. She goes limp for a few seconds after the embrace, so the male will make sure he catches all the falling eggs and puts them in the bubblenest.

They will repeat the embracing/egg catching for up to several hours. Once the male has finished with the female he will chase her off and she will have nothing more to do with the babies. The male guards the nest, and the eggs hatch in about 48 hours. Some males will continue to guard the fry for several weeks, while some lose interest after the fry leave the nest.

Here is a video of my splendens pair embracing and doing their thing:

I was watching tv in bed and was joined by all of the cats:)

For the first time in over two years, I have been alone overnight. R has gone to Melbourne for his niece's b-day party. She turned 8 on the 19th (I remember this because she's 6 days older than Julie:)) He left last night and will return tomorrow evening.

Being home alone is of course no big deal, I lived alone for years before moving in with R. I always rather enjoyed living alone (which is why I chose to live alone, rather than choosing other living arrangements), the independence and freedom always appealed to me, and still does. But of course back then, unlike now, there was no one I missed being around. Now there is, so even tho I enjoy my alone time, I look forward to R's return:)

It's almost like when we lived a world apart (literally) in the early stages of our relationship, with the chatting on msn with webcam when we have time and texts sent quite regularly.. It's kinda funny:)

I was attempting to tell Roger about something that happened at the pet store on Friday.

Me: One of the guys at the pet store asked me if I ever went to the pet hypermarket, because...
R: Yeah, I know.
Me: How do you know?
R: I was there when he asked.
Me: No, you weren't, you were in Melbourne.
R: No I wasn't, it happened a couple of weeks ago.
Me: Did he ask me if I keep turtles?
R: Yep.
Me: That happened on Friday while you were away!
R: Oh, really?
Me: Yep.
R: Oh... maybe I dreamt about it...
Me: Yeah... maybe I sent it to you...

My little Julie is 8 years old today. She's still my special little baby, because I've had her since she was two days old, longer than any of our other cats. She's been the only consistent thing in my life since I was 19, everything else has changed, but Julie is my little rock:)

However, all is not bliss with Julie. She has always enjoyed her outside time and I have mostly indulged her desire to be outside because it makes her happy. But the last couple of months or so, she has been gone a lot, and I recently discovered why. The people next door have invited her into their house, despite knowing that she belongs to me and R.

I'm not happy about it, Julie belongs with me. I know her better than anyone. Luckily, we are working on a new form of cat proofing for the fence, so that will be the end of her leaving the garden. (This is of course not because I am so petty that I can't handle Julie having friends, but because I want her to stay safe and not get run over. Removing her from the next door neighbours is just a bonus.)

Anyway, happy b-day Julie.



(Click for bigger versions.)

Today we went to Crazy John's Mobile phone store to unlock Roger's previous phone - an LG Prada. We bought it a year ago on a two year plan, so my phone could have an account instead of being on pre-paid. The sim for it has never been used in the Prada, because I put the sim in my phone and R used his Vodafone sim in the Prada (Crazy John's is a Vodafone reseller so Vodafone sims work in their phones). R has now given this phone to his business partner Olivia because it was wasted on him as he hardly ever used it anyway.

So we went to unlock it so that Olivia could use her new sim in it, which isn't Vodafone. There's a year left of the plan it was bought with, so we weren't sure if they'd be happy to unlock it for us.

While living in Norway, I once tried to get a phone unlocked, but I wanted to stay on the plan. I had swapped phones with R and he needed to use his sim in my Norry phone which was locked to a Norry company - Tele2. I explained all this to Tele2, and they refused to be helpful at all. She wouldn't even listen to my explanation, she just kept saying that if I wanted to unlock it I had to pay out the remaining 6 months left of my contract, despite me repeatedly clarifying that I wanted to stay on the contract until it finished, just with a different phone.

So when R said he wanted the Prada unlocked a year before the contract was up, I wasn't hopeful.

But we walked into Crazy John's and explained to them that we wanted to still be on the contract until it ends in a year, we just wanted to be able to use a different sim in that particular phone.

They were happy to help, and called the necessary people to make it happen, for free.

 

Julie was outside all day yesterday, which isn't unusual. She came in in the evening, and because it was raining a lot I decided to keep her in for the night. She went to sleep on the couch and I went to do other stuff for a few hours. After I had finished with my tasks, I went to sit down with Julie for a while and give her a cuddle. I ran my hand all along her body and up her tail, and then noticed a bump on it that never used to be there. I felt it a bit more closely, but carefully, so I wouldn't hurt her, and the tail seemed crooked with a big lump where it was bent, and the end was limp. She whinged a bit when it was touched, and purred more loudly than usual, which is a sign of pain. I made Roger feel it too, because I was too scared to touch it in case it hurt, and he didn't support my theory that it was broken, he thought it was just a sore or similar.

I still believed it was broken, so I googled it (as you do) and found some info on broken tails in cats. A few sites said that the prognosis is really good, others that broken tails could cause problems with the bladder and that broken tails that don't recover and stay limp should be amputated to avoid further damage (from not being able to feel pain in it, and because they might accidentally pee on it, causing chronic skin rashes and infections).

I couldn't stand the thought of Julie being in any pain, so I set my alarm for 8:30 this morning to call the vet first thing. She said we could come in at 9:30, which we did. The vet felt it, then decided to shave part of her tail for a closer look, and discovered that it wasn't broken, but had two deep puncture wounds from another cat biting her. They were bleeding and had a bit of pus coming out of them, and her temperature was up slightly. The lump we felt was from swelling around the wounds, not bone trying to poke through the skin which was my immediate thought when I felt it.

She was injected with a one off painkiller, and we were given antibiotics to give her for the next 5 days. By the time the painkiller wears off some time tomorrow, the antibiotics should have kicked in enough for her to not be in much pain.

So that was another little cat scare, but at least she's ok now:)